41 patents
Page 2 of 3
Utility
Device and method for operating cameras and light sources wherein parasitic reflections from a paired light source are not reflected into the paired camera
9 Dec 19
Provided herein is a device and method for improved operating of cameras and light sources of a mobile automation apparatus.
Paul D. Haist, Alexandre Obotnine
Filed: 30 Apr 17
Utility
Arrangement for, and method of, locating product tags by locating users who are operating mobile readers for reading the product tags
2 Dec 19
A user moves about a venue, and operates a mobile reader to read a product tag in a read zone of the mobile reader.
Richard J. Lavery, Russell E. Calvarese, Charles Lauria
Filed: 28 Feb 16
Utility
Imaging module and reader for, and method of, variably illuminating targets to be read by image capture over a range of working distances
25 Nov 19
A range finder determines a distance to a target to be read by image capture over a range of working distances.
Chinh Tan, Carl D. Wittenberg
Filed: 21 Mar 16
Utility
Method and apparatus for shelf edge detection
25 Nov 19
A method of label detection includes: obtaining, by an imaging controller, an image depicting a shelf; increasing an intensity of a foreground subset of image pixels exceeding an upper intensity threshold, and decreasing an intensity of a background subset of pixels below a lower intensity threshold; responsive to the increasing and the decreasing, (i) determining gradients for each of the pixels and (ii) selecting a candidate set of the pixels based on the gradients; overlaying a plurality of shelf candidate lines on the image derived from the candidate set of pixels; identifying a pair of the shelf candidate lines satisfying a predetermined sequence of intensity transitions; and generating and storing a shelf edge bounding box corresponding to the pair of shelf candidate lines.
Richard Jeffrey Rzeszutek, Vlad Gorodetsky
Filed: 6 Sep 17
Utility
Anti-fraud security tag removal
25 Nov 19
An anti-fraud security tag removal system reads product identifiers on groups of items presented for purchase at a point of sale area.
Richard J. Lavery, Russell Calvarese, Rehan K. Jaffri, David Bellows, Sean Connolly
Filed: 13 Dec 17
Utility
Temperature Compensation for Image Acquisition and Processing Apparatus and Methods
6 Nov 19
A data capture device includes: an imaging module including an image sensor and a lens; a temperature sensor associated with the imaging module; a memory storing, for a plurality of temperatures, respective imaging module response parameters corresponding to the temperatures; an imaging controller connected to the image sensor and the temperature sensor; the imaging controller including a frame generator configured to: receive (i) image data from the image sensor and (ii) a temperature measurement from the temperature sensor; generate a raw image frame containing the temperature measurement and the image data; and provide the raw image frame to a calibrator for generation of a calibrated image frame based on the raw image frame and one of the imaging module response parameters corresponding to the temperature matching the temperature measurement.
Aleksandar Rajak, Parimal R. Patel
Filed: 11 Jul 19
Utility
Methods, Systems and Apparatus for Detecting Object Location and Generating Alerts
30 Oct 19
Methods, systems and apparatus for detecting object location and generating alerts are disclosed herein.
Sunalini Sankhavaram, Christopher Wuest, Guy Solimine, Nicholas J. Ford, Vinh-Phuong T. Le, Ed W. Geiger, Yu Wan, Mahender R. Vangati, David Tan Nguyen, Sudhakar Reddy
Filed: 7 Jul 19
Utility
Interchangeably Connectable Charging Cradle, Battery Pack and Mobile Device
30 Oct 19
A charging cradle includes: a cradle housing having a base portion, and a socket portion configured to interchangeably receive (i) a mobile device, (ii) a battery pack for the mobile device, and (iii) the mobile device in combination with the battery pack; the socket portion including: a shared base surface having disposed thereon a set of shared charging contacts; a first set of guide surfaces extending from the shared base surface and defining a first socket configured to receive the mobile device and, in the absence of the battery pack, to engage the shared charging contacts with a first set of contacts on the mobile device; and a second set of guide surfaces extending from the shared base surface and defining a second socket configured to receive the battery pack and engage the shared charging contacts with a second set of contacts on the battery pack.
Mark Thomas Fountain, JaeHo Choi, Edward Anthony Hackett, Edward M. Voli, Carl A. Thelemann
Filed: 14 Dec 17
Reissue
Methods and apparatus for adjusting heading direction in a navigation system
28 Oct 19
A mobile device is described.
Michael J. Giannetta, Chi Zhang, Eyal Peretz
Filed: 20 Nov 17
Utility
Arrangement for and method of processing products at a workstation upgradeable with a camera module for capturing an image of an operator of the workstation
28 Oct 19
A bioptical workstation captures images of illuminated symbols with a solid-state imager.
Edward D. Barkan, Mark E. Drzymala
Filed: 11 May 15
Utility
RFID directed video snapshots capturing targets of interest
28 Oct 19
A method and apparatus for locating a moving target in a venue and for capturing a sequenced timeline of target directed images is described.
Jimmy Chabra, Rehan K. Jaffri, Charles G. Lauria, Thomas E. Wulff, Sean Connolly, Russell Calvarese
Filed: 4 Jun 17
Utility
Dimensioning system for, and method of, dimensioning freight in motion along an unconstrained path in a venue
21 Oct 19
A ranging system captures successive point clouds from moving freight, and a tracking system tracks successive positions and orientations of the moving freight.
Richard Mark Clayton, Charles Burton Swope
Filed: 21 Nov 16
Utility
Method, system and apparatus for multicast data rate selection
14 Oct 19
A method of multicast data rate selection in an access point includes: establishing respective connections between the access point and a plurality of client devices; determining whether to set a legacy client presence flag in a memory of the access point based on whether the plurality of client devices includes or does not include a legacy client device; prior to initiating a multicast transmission to the plurality of client devices, determining whether the legacy client presence flag is set; when the legacy client presence flag is set, setting a selected multicast data rate corresponding to a first maximum data rate in a subset of legacy-compatible data rates stored in the memory; and when the legacy client presence flag is not set, setting the selected multicast data rate corresponding to a second maximum data rate in a subset of non-legacy-compatible data rates stored in the memory.
Venkata Aneel Kumar Inuganti, Satish Shivarudrappa, Naga Babu Parsi, Kishore Kumar Pathankanur, Satyendra Kumar Veeramacha, Madhusudhan Shivappa, Yashas N S
Filed: 22 Oct 17
Utility
Methods and systems for mitigating connection impact on network infrastructure
14 Oct 19
A method in a client device of mitigating connection impact on network infrastructure includes: storing a record of network disconnection events; prior to initiating a network connection, determining whether the record of network disconnection events contains an indication of a local disconnection event; when the record of network disconnection events contains an indication of a local disconnection event, generating and transmitting a scanning request message containing a disconnect indicator; responsive to receiving a response to the scanning request message, determining whether a number of entries in the record of network disconnection events exceeds a threshold; when the number of entries in the record of network disconnection events exceeds the threshold, incrementing a connection interval according to a backoff interval; and sending a connection request message upon expiry of the connection interval.
Venkateswaran Narayanan, Anandakumar Gopalsamy, Ambika Nagarajaiah, Dayal Madhukar Rai, Sethuraman Vijayakumar, Sateesh V. Angadi, David A. Meyer
Filed: 6 Dec 17
Utility
Method, System and Apparatus for Generating Navigational Data
9 Oct 19
A computing device for generating a navigational path for a mobile automation apparatus includes: a memory storing, for each of a plurality of pairs of poses having predetermined orientations, a group of pre-computed path segments, each path segment traversing the pair of poses and corresponding to one of a set of entry poses and one of a set of exit poses; a navigational controller configured to: obtain a coarse path defined by a sequence of guide poses each having one of the predetermined orientations, the coarse path having a start location and an end location; for each successive pair of the guide poses, retrieve a selected one of the path segments from memory based on orientations of (i) the pair of guide poses, (ii) a preceding guide pose, and (iii) a following guide pose; and generate a final path for navigation by the apparatus by combining the selected path segments.
Zichen Huang, Harsoveet Singh, Sadegh Tajeddin, Stephen L. Smith
Filed: 4 Apr 18
Utility
Method, System and Apparatus for Dynamic Path Generation
9 Oct 19
A method of dynamic path generation in a navigational controller includes: generating (i) a plurality of paths extending from a starting location to a goal location, and (ii) a cost for each of the paths; selecting, based on the costs, an optimal path for execution from the plurality of paths; storing a subset of the costs in a cost history queue; responsive to detecting an obstacle during execution of the optimal path, retrieving one of the costs from the cost history queue; determining an initial re-planning search space based on the cost retrieved from the cost history queue; and initiating generation of a re-planned path within the initial re-planning search space.
Sadegh Tajeddin, Zichen Huang, Harsoveet Singh
Filed: 4 Apr 18
Utility
Method, System and Apparatus for Mobile Automation Apparatus Localization
9 Oct 19
A method of mobile automation apparatus localization in a navigation controller includes: controlling a depth sensor to capture a plurality of depth measurements corresponding to an area containing a navigational structure; selecting a primary subset of the depth measurements; selecting, from the primary subset, a corner candidate subset of the depth measurements; generating, from the corner candidate subset, a corner edge corresponding to the navigational structure; selecting an aisle subset of the depth measurements from the primary subset, according to the corner edge; selecting, from the aisle subset, a local minimum depth measurement for each of a plurality of sampling planes extending from the depth sensor; generating a shelf plane from the local minimum depth measurements; and updating a localization of the mobile automation apparatus based on the corner edge and the shelf plane.
Feng Cao, Harsoveet Singh, Richard Jeffrey Rzeszutek, Jingxing Qian, Jonathan Kelly
Filed: 4 Apr 18
Utility
Method, System and Apparatus for Correcting Translucency Artifacts In Data Representing a Support Structure
9 Oct 19
A method in an imaging controller of correcting translucency artifacts in data representing one or more objects disposed on a shelf includes: obtaining a plurality of depth measurements captured by a depth sensor and corresponding to an area containing the shelf; obtaining (i) a definition of a plane containing edges of the shelf, (ii) a location in the plane of an upper shelf edge, and (iii) a location in the plane of a lower shelf edge adjacent to the upper shelf edge; generating a depth map containing, for each of a plurality of positions in the plane, a nearest object depth; detecting an upper object boundary in the depth map between the upper and lower support surface edges; updating each nearest object depth between the upper object boundary and the lower shelf edge to contain a depth of the upper object boundary; and storing the corrected depth map.
Raymond Phan, Richard Jeffrey Rzeszutek, Iaacov Coby Segall
Filed: 4 Apr 18
Utility
Method, System and Apparatus for Recovering Label Positions
9 Oct 19
A method of recovering label positions in an imaging controller includes: receiving (i) a definition of a plane containing edges of the shelf, and (ii) a plurality of initial label indicators having locations on the plane; assigning the initial label indicators among a plurality of candidate subsets each representing a single physical label; for each candidate subset of initial indicators: generating, for each of a plurality of projection depths relative to the plane, a set of projections of the initial indicators in the candidate subset; determining an aggregate surface area for each set of projections; selecting, as a recovered depth for the candidate subset, one of the projection depths corresponding to the minimum aggregate surface area; and generating a recovered position for the candidate subset based on the recovered depth; and storing the recovered positions.
Joseph Lam, Vlad Gorodetsky, Richard Jeffrey Rzeszutek
Filed: 4 Apr 18
Utility
System for and method of deterring theft of items from a venue
7 Oct 19
Theft of an item from a department of a venue having a department-specific, point-of-sale (POS) station for completing a transaction of the item prior to authorized removal of the item from the department, is deterred by sensing and tracking movement of a target associated with the item from the department by deploying a plurality of sensing units overhead at the venue, and by generating an alert when the sensing units sense and track that the target associated with the item has bypassed the department-specific POS station without the transaction having been completed for the item at the department-specific POS station.
Thomas E. Wulff
Filed: 6 Jul 16